At 16 years old, Caleer Miller was 6 feet tall and still growing. His height made him a natural at basketball, as shown in videos of him dunking the ball with ease at his neighborhood court. Caleer cited the Philadelphia 76ers as his favorite team and aspired to one day go pro himself.
“He was pretty tall for a 16-year-old. You can’t just be this tall for no reason, you have to do something with that height,” Aishah George, Caleer’s mother, joked.
So many of his family’s memories are related to his passion for basketball: from leading his team to win at Christopher Columbus Charter School to memories of Caleer as a baby holding a ball.
“He was probably 1 or younger, and he’s actually in an umbrella stroller with the ball bigger than him because he was so small,” Aishah said of one of her early memories of her son. “Everytime you would see him, he would have a basketball.”
Basketball is what led the teenager to transfer to Mastery Charter School about a month before his death. His previous school did not have a basketball team, which was not ideal for Caleer’s aspirations in the sport.
“That was one of the reasons why they put the 76ers logo on the casket. Unfortunately it was a casket… I wish it was for something else.”
Caleer was killed on Oct. 24, 2017 in South Philadelphia. His dreams of playing college and professional basketball never to come to fruition.
He worked hard to accomplish all of his dreams. Caleer was considered to be mature for his age, as shown through his schedule of going to school, working and spending time practicing on the basketball court. He was never one to get in trouble and kept this routine so he could have the future he desired.
Caleer worked to save money and occasionally splurged to buy himself the sneakers he wanted. At the time, he was employed at ACME, but he previously had a summer job at the Charles Santore Free Library and volunteered to work with children at his church’s summer camp. The teenager excelled in school, citing math and science as his favorite subjects.
“Even though he was a kid, a teenager, he still was busy,” Aishah said. “I’m glad that it actually kept him off the streets.”
Aishah calls Caleer her best friend. His toothy grin always comforted her, even on bad days.
If he wasn’t watching basketball on TV, or playing the sport himself, he enjoyed watching wrestling and playing video games at home. Along with Caleer’s 14-year-old twin brothers, Nasir and Nasim, Aishah would take Caleer to WWE shows.
“If you had a chance to meet him, you would love him. He didn’t really have enemies. His vigil and his funeral showed that,” Aishah said. “He was just always doing something positive. I’m not just saying that because he’s my kid, but he really wasn’t a bad kid at all.”
Even as a young boy, Caleer was always trying to do the right thing. He received small awards in school for acting as a peacemaker.
“If he would go into the lunch room or something and see children fighting, he would stop it. He would get awards for that, and that’s how he died, being a peacemaker,” Aishah said. “That’s what he was known for: peace and all smiles.”
A portrait of Caleer is included in the latest exhibition of Souls Shot: Portraits of Gun Violence.
Date: 2017-10-24
Location: 2300 S 12th St, Philadelphia, PA
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